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tv   Breakfast  BBC News  May 20, 2017 7:00am-8:01am BST

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hello, this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and sally nugent. president trump will arrive on his first foreign trip since taking office, amid growing controversy back in washington. as he left there were reports in the us that he had described the fbi director he'd just sacked as a "nutjob" to russian officials. good morning, it's saturday the 20th of may. also ahead: tighter restrictions on tobacco come into force this morning, with plain packaging and smaller packets no longer on sale. a new map of pollen hot spots is launched to try and help hay fever sufferers. microchips for humans: we'll hear why some people are having them installed to perform every day tasks. in sport: a power struggle at arsenal. arsene wenger‘s biggest backer, rejects a £1 billion bid for control of the north london club.
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and philip has the weather. hello, good morning. for some the weekend is starting looking like this. but at the same time others are looking like this. i'll tell you who gets what and where and why in a few minutes. good morning. first, our main story. president trump will arrive in saudi arabia this morning, but he leaves behind more controversy in washington. the us media is reporting that he told senior russian officials that the fbijames told senior russian officials that the fbi james comey was a "nutjob" and sacking him relieved great pressure on him. the memo came as he set off on his first foreign trip since taking office. president trump is off on his first foreign trip. he might be glad to leave washington behind for a while. he tweeted that he'll be protecting american interests. "that's what i like to do". but the president has had one of his most tumultuous weeks in the white house yet.
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it started with accusation that he'd leaked classified information to the russians. then came reports of a memo claiming president trump asked the fbi director to drop an investigation into his former national security adviser. the next day it was announced that a special counsel would lead an enquiry into russian meddling in the presidential election and look at alleged links between moscow and the trump campaign. the washington post is now reporting someone close to the president is of interest in that investigation. and just as air force one took off, the new york times published this. not only did mr trump call the fbi directorjames comey a "nutjob", he said he felt, with him gone, it would "relieve pressure" over the fbi investigation. it seems that we are learning disturbing new allegations about president trump, notjust every day, but, ladies and gentlemen, every hour. the white house said mr trump was acting in the interests of the nation by firing james comey.
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earlier this week, mr trump described the russian enquiry as a witch—hunt. james comey will now give his side of events in public in around ten days‘ time. donald trump is embarking on an eight day ambitious foreign trip, but will it be overshadowed by the prospect of more trouble when he gets back home? laura bicker, bbc news. shortly we'll be speaking to the bbc‘s chief international correspondent lyse doucet, live from riyadh in a few minutes. new rules for cigarette packaging come into force this weekend. all packs must be greenish—brown, withjust a small space for the brand name and include a graphic warning of the dangers of smoking. the measures, aimed at discouraging young people from taking up the habit, also include a ban on selling packs of ten. tom burridge reports. persuading young people not to smoke. that's what the government hopes these new rules will do.
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from today, all cigarette packets have to be a standard green design, similar to this. health warnings must cover two thirds of the front and back of the packets. and you can no longer buy packets of ten. there will also be restrictions on e—cigarettes and on rolling tobacco too. public health campaigners say the number of people smoking in britain continues to fall and this is another positive step. it's too early to say how many will avoid taking up, but even if it's just a few percent that will have a big benefit in 20 or 30 years‘ time. but the tobacco industry says greater restrictions will only push people to buy cigarettes elsewhere. we are seeing people actually not quitting or giving up smoking, but basically buying cheap tobacco from the black market. it's never been so expensive to smoke. the government wants to emphasise the possible health costs and persuade more to stub the habit out.
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it's been a busy week in politics as we gear up forjune‘s general election. we've had manifestos from the major parties and the first tv leaders' debate. so where does it all leave the campaign so far, and what can we expect from the parties this week? our political correspondent mark lobeljoins us from our london newsroom. a very good morning. we are midway through. we know a bit more than we did before? that's right. good morning. this week brought several of them. more money for the nhs, extra money brought in, but otherwise some questions left after this manifestoes were rolled out. labour was quite clear on lots of spending commitments, scrapping tuition fees, banning zero contract... zero hour contracts and wanting to tax businesses and the wealthy more for all of that. but in bringing energy and rail and firms
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under state control, how are they going to pay for those? the lib dems offering us a second referendum on wrecks it, played calmly wanting to ca ptu re wrecks it, played calmly wanting to capture that money if and when we leave the eu. —— plaid cymru. the conservatives want a fiscally neutral manifesto, want to pay for health and education changes by scrapping some hot school lunches and changing social care funding. so some questions about which pensioners will lose their winter fuel payments from the conservatives. looking ahead, we have smp, ukip and the greens' ma nifesto have smp, ukip and the greens' manifesto ahead. we've got lots of tv interviews, one—on—one interviews, with jeremy tv interviews, one—on—one interviews, withjeremy corbyn and theresa may to look forward to as well. thanks for the moment. wikileaks founderjulian assange remains in the ecuardorian embassy in london this morning, despite sweden dropping a rape investigation against him without charge. mr assange is trying to avoid extradition to the us, where he's wanted over the leaking of military
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and diplomatic documents. scotland yard also says he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy for failing to attend court in 2012. the first ever hayfever map of the uk has been published which claims to help sufferers cope, by warning them of pollen hotspots. the new highly—detailed maps show the locations of key plants and trees known to produce pollen that triggers allergies and asthma. it's hoped the they will reduce exposure and even influence where people buy homes. home ownership among younger families has fallen by nearly two—thirds in some parts of the uk since 1994, according to new research. the resolution foundation, a think tank focussing on living standards, says outer london, the north—west and parts of yorkshire were most affected. our business correspondent joe lynam has the details. it's usually assumed that soaring house prices in central london would have the greatest impact on affordability for younger households. but the resolution foundation says
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the north of england and outer london have been affected the most. it says home ownership among young families has fallen 63% in outer london towns, such as harrow and croydon. in west yorkshire, ownership fell by 52% among families with adults between 25 and 34. while the fall in greater manchester was 51% between 1994 and last year. a lot more families are living in the private rental sector, which is expensive, insecure and often not a very nice place to live. but it also matters longer term. we've seen in the debate around social care this week that having a home is a key way that many people build up an asset over their lifetime. it really matters when you get old whether you own a house. they also say pledges by labour and the conservatives to build i million new homes lacked the required detail on how that might be achieved within five years. prince george and princess charlotte will act as page boy and bridesmaid when their aunt pippa middleton
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marries james matthews today. the event is being dubbed the society wedding of the year. there's been speculation over whether prince harry will bring his girlfriend, the american actress meghan markle. and you might remember a few weeks ago we were talking about the benefits of bringing your dog to work. it worked for me! you brought your dog in and it was all right. she behaved. well, actually, you should bring your cat into work. apparently there isa your cat into work. apparently there is a benefit! they want to get their little paw in the door. ajapanese company is encouraging people to bring their cats to the office to help them cope with stress and fatigue. the cats are allowed to roam freely but sometimes they cause havoc, cutting off phone calls as they walk across the desk!
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the phrase herding cats, there's a reason why that phrase exists. you have no control over what a cat does. they are quite cool. exactly. back to our main story this morning. president donald trump will make his first international visit today, as he arrives in saudi arabia at the start of a foreign tour. we're joined now by the bbc‘s chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, who is in the saudi capital riyadh. good morning, lyse. so much to talk about. let's start with the expectations for the visit today. as all of your viewers will know, resident donald trump is leading a storm of controversy in the united states. allegations about mr handling of intelligence. the front pages of newspapers are of crises.
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but here, look at the front pages. a new page it talks about as trump makes an historic visit to saudi arabia. when they talk about a new page it is about turning the page on president 0bama's time. the saudi kingdom was deeply unhappy about what they saw as president 0bama's retreat from syria and his focus on it was the nuclear deal with the saudi archenemy iran. so there's a lot of talk about new alliances being formed, because president trump is not just being formed, because president trump is notjust going to meet saudi rulers on his first stop on his first—everforeign saudi rulers on his first stop on his first—ever foreign visit, he will also meet the leaders of the gulf cooperation council, the neighbours of saudi arabia, and the whole islamic world. prime ministers are gathering here to send a message about any relationship the united states. and i know president trump is also due to make a speech on islam. that's surely very much anticipated? very tricky. this will
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be one where they will do everything possible to make sure that president trump doesn't go off script and he sticks to the autocue. people will remember that during the campaign in the united states he talked about muslims hating america. they will remember he blamed saudi arabia for the attacks off 9/1! in the us and of course the travel ban, banning countries from seven muslim countries. it was widely described asa countries. it was widely described as a muslim ban. this will be about turning a new page and we will focus on the battle against extreme islam among radical islam. that they have to work together. the united states, western powers, with saudi arabia and other countries across the muslim world. so it's all about trying to change the conversation, as difficult as that may be. we've been talking about the controversy in washington. we are talking about
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it here and i am sure internationally it is making a lot of noise, but in saudi arabia are they reporting that as well? they are, but it's not on the front pages. when you ask them publicly, i asked the saudi foreign minister whether they were worried this would overs ha d ow whether they were worried this would overshadow the visit, they said they due with the government as they are and they don't want any messiness, as one young diplomat told me. they aren't talking about the elephant in the room, it's elephant in riyadh. privately, saudi officials have said they hoped this would overshadow the visit. we were looking at the schedule. there's no occasions when the press from the us can ask questions in public of president trump, so they are going to do everything possible to avoid any possibility that he could slip up and say the wrong word at the wrong time and create the wrong headline here. it's going to be an interesting couple of days. thank
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you very much indeed. we know that president trump is due to land in the next couple of hours and we will bring you the latest on that when we have it. you're watching breakfast from bbc news. the main stories this morning: as president trump embarks on his first foreign trip since taking office he leaves behind more controversy over his sacking of the fbi directorjames comey. tighter restrictions on cigarette packaging come into force this weekend aimed at discouraging young people from taking up the habit. i think we can have a look outside. we tends to choose mornings when it looks like that. a bit of blue sky, some clouds. gorgeous. what will it be like everywhere else? and what about people getting married? no pressure. a wedding in late may, you
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would hope it would be good. looking glorious. the same aspect on the eastern side of the british isles. we are rubbing it in for parts of scotland, i am afraid, and some western parts of the isles. dry and fine here. make the most of it is. 0ne fine here. make the most of it is. one or two showers in the east of england and the south coast. we will see how we do in the next few hours. hard to look at the window in scotland. the rain is ever present across northern and north—eastern parts for a good part of the day. further south, an interlude between the rain. showers moving. they are already in wales and parts of the south—west of england as well. the odd one along the channel coast in the sussex and kent. 0ne odd one along the channel coast in the sussex and kent. one or two on the sussex and kent. one or two on the eastern shores. the general motion of the weather today is to
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push those showers at the east. they will be sharp this afternoon. further north, the rain is easing towards the north—eastern corner. it is there and in the northern isles for a good part of the day. the scottish premiership. cloudy. downright wet. a good day, i should say, for rugby in exeter and coventry. showers. some fine weather between. showers tending to fade during the course of the night. sunday, a dry day. lots of shows going on. there will be more in the way of rain in northern ireland and parts of western scotland. no great intensity. it could rain on your parade. not for the greater part of the finale fixtures for the english premier league. some of those are quite crucialfor premier league. some of those are quite crucial for qualification into europe. monday sees low pressure to the west. more unsettled weather they are. high pressure over towards
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they are. high pressure over towards the continent. some warmth. it will be warm and quiet humid as well. watch out for hefty showers. a band of weather comes in through scotland and northern ireland. further east, watch out for the strength of the sun. it is quite punchy this time of year. a mix of weather on offer to start the new week. back to you guys. thank you. if you suffer from hay fever, these maps could forecast when the issue is at its highest. we will look at how it works. this is the third most common tree in britain. we cannot see it right now. we were hoping to have the map up. the darkest areas on the map show where it is most prevalent and where the levels of
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pollen would be high. 0n the south coast and wales and the north—west, grass in the british woodlands can also be problematic for hayfever sufferers, as anyone who suffers will know. we will go into a lot more detail about this later on in the programme. this is the time of year when many people are suffering, especially children have exams at these kinds of the year. it is a big problem. imagine if you could unlock doors or control your phone using a tiny chip implanted in your hand. it sounds like something out of a sci—fi thriller, but for a growing number of people in the uk it's becoming a reality. so—called "bio—hackers" are installing microchips into their bodies and programming them to perform everyday tasks. but will it catch on? danny savage went to meet some of them. this is a hack space where people into their tech build stuff or take things apart and start again. a few of them, though, have technology implanted inside them. they have been chipped, fitted with near—field
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communication. buried in their hand, it can do tasks for them. this one is a key. it will open the door for me so i can get in. it is the same technology we have been chipping cats and dogs with for the past 30 years. it is entirely benign. if anyone wanted to change it, they would have to be within one centimetre of me and i have a password on it as well. it cannot be turned into a cyborg assassin? nothing that exciting. my chip goes to my facebook outpage as a digital business card. the chip in holly's hand directs people to her webpage. she sees a medical use as well. it could be a hospital nametag. it could help of someone is passed out on the floor and you have no
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idea of their medical history. scan their hand and you have their history and details. something like that is where this technology go. and this is the size of the chip that hackers have inside them. would you want one? i have sent you a text message. tanya does. she's a tech expert at a university, and believes it is important to be a pioneer human with a chip. in the future they could be more person related and versatile. there are only 200 in the uk at the moment with a chip. we think nothing of them in cats and dogs. is putting them in people the next logical step? danny savage, bbc news. it was just a month before
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the london 2012 whenjulian assange walked into the ecuadorian embassy in london. he's not left since. the controversial founder of wikileaks, a website that reveals confidential military and diplomatic documents, was seeking asylum after allegations of rape in sweden. caroline hawley explains. this complex international drama began in august, 2010, when two women alleged julian assange sexual assault of them on a visit to sweden. these accusations he has a lwa ys sweden. these accusations he has always denied. in september, he was arrested under an arrest warrant. in 2012 the supreme court upheld a decision to extradite him to sweden for questioning. in june, he decision to extradite him to sweden for questioning. injune, he went on
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to the ecuadorian embassy requesting asylum. the metropolitan police mounted a 24—hour guard at the embassy. 0ctober mounted a 24—hour guard at the embassy. october 2015, by mounted a 24—hour guard at the embassy. 0ctober2015, by now mounted a 24—hour guard at the embassy. october 2015, by now it has cost £13 million. the swedish investigation has been dropped without charge. what will happen now? we're joined now by the author david leigh, who's written a book about julian assange's "war on secrecy." good morning. just explain to us why it is that julian good morning. just explain to us why it is thatjulian assange would elect now to remain in his place of confinement, as it were. if he walks out of the embassy, as he has always been free to do for the last five yea rs, been free to do for the last five years, he will immediately be arrested. he won't be arrested on the extradition warrant. he will be arrested because he jumped the extradition warrant. he will be arrested because hejumped bail in britain, a criminal offence. they are first in the queue to do something to him and he would be prosecuted. it would be a very big
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crime. the metropolitan police have said it is not a high level offence. i guess he would be locked up again. he would be tried for it. probably he would end up being deported. so, that is... that is the risk in terms of the bail situation. the ongoing risk in connection with the questions that the us has for him. what are they? i am not an expert on the donald trump administration, which is quite hard for people to fathom. there is no tradition warrant public as we know in the us forjulian assange. it is alljust talk that the americans have got it infor him. talk that the americans have got it in for him. the idea of it all is thatjulian in for him. the idea of it all is that julian assange in for him. the idea of it all is thatjulian assange made himself unpopular with so many people by leaking material that seemed to discredit donald trump's rival, hillary clinton, helping him to become president. at the time, donald trump said i like wikileaks.
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now the mood seems to have soured again and they have it in for him. as we look at the situation as it stands, as i am understanding from new, you say there is an issue where there is an exhibition warrant existing. it is a bit of a grey area. at some point, if you want to genchy circumstances, as in where he is living and carrying on in normal life, there would be a gamble in leaving that plays. —— change his.|j feel sorry leaving that plays. —— change his.” feel sorry forjulian leaving that plays. —— change his.” feel sorry for julian assange. leaving that plays. —— change his.” feel sorry forjulian assange. he has been his own worst enemy. if he went back to sweden and faced the music years ago, probably, even if he was convicted in sweden with these minor sexual offences, he would have had a small penalty. as it is, spending five years locked up ina it is, spending five years locked up in a little room voluntarily is quite a harsh penalty. so i think he has brought about his own misfortune and has been punished quite a lot already. given what you know about him and his mindset and his beliefs,
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what do you think you will do?” think he will stay on in the embassy railing against the british government, railing against the eu, which appears to be his latest ration, railing against the united states and publicising himself. —— passion. you say that as if that is almost what he would like. he basks in the attention and he regards himself as a very important player on the world stage. i think the british police have spent millions on keeping watch on him. we regard that as an overstatement. it is important to us all. very interesting to talk to you this morning, david. thank you for your time. whether it's french champaign or italian prosecco, the uk's love of fizz shows no sign of slowing down. but the technique for making it was first documented not by a frenchman or an italian, but by a 17th century scientist in england. we sent nick higham to find out whether english sparkling wine is, infact, older than its european cousins. some call it brit fizz, or simply
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bubbly. its proper name is english sparkling wine, and it is made like champagne. the french will tell you the method was discovered by a frenchman. a man called don berry on in 1967. but here in winchcombe, they know better. 0n in 1967. but here in winchcombe, they know better. on monday, they will put up a plank on his birthplace to a local, a pioneering scientists who recorded english scientists who recorded english scientists using the technique in 1662, more than 30 years before don. he described the way they were adding sugar and molasses to the wine, which was making it sparkly. he was the first person to actually use that word, sparkly, in connection to win, was in there? yes. at this gloucestershire
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vinnies, they make it. they make it and add sugar and east to bring on what is called a secondary fermentation. -- yeast. we put it into a vats, and we ferment them in the vats. that is the first. the second is in the bottle itself. from the first one you get bubbles, but we allow it to bubble off. then you get a secondary one and you need to contain that within the bottle to give us the bubble and the finished sparkling wine. one reason the english did it first is that english bottles were thicker and heavier. flimsy french bottles exploded when the fee is built up inside them. —— ? ?macr01 sparkling wine was a menace to french makers. english sparkling
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wine has a long history. even longer than champagne. but it has a long and cumbersome name as well. at this small vineyards, they have tried to come up with a snappy title, with mixed success. we have come up with balarry, derived from the latin word for bubbles. we thought about the welsh version, which was swigot, but ido welsh version, which was swigot, but i do think that quite had the ring to it. would you like a glass of swigot? per second, cava, zekt. what is the english equivalent? bbc news. a tricky one. he doesn't matter what it is called as long as it is tasty.
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we will have more headlines coming up we will have more headlines coming up in we will have more headlines coming upina we will have more headlines coming up in a moment. we will see you soon. hello, this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and sally nugent. coming up before 8am, philip has the weather. but first, a summary of this morning's main news. president trump will arrive in saudi arabia this morning, but he leaves behind more controversy in washington. the us media is reporting that he told senior russian officials james comey was a "nut job" whose sacking had "relieved great pressure" on him. the claim, not denied by the white house, emerged as he set off for his first
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foreign trip since taking office. new rules for cigarette packaging come into force this weekend. all packs must be greenish—brown withjust a small space for the brand name and include a graphic warning of the dangers of smoking. a ban on selling packs of ten will also come into force. but the tobacco manufacturers association says greater restrictions will push people to buy cigarettes on the black market. 0n the election campaign, two members of the labour shadow cabinet have had a public disagreement over the party's policy on renewing the trident nuclear weapons system. the shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry suggested the outcome of a defence review, promised in the party's manifesto, could result in support for trident being dropped. but labour's shadow defence secretary nia griffith told the bbc‘s newsnight programme that her colleague was wrong. the chief secretary to the treasury, david gauke, has insisted the conservatives are right not to set a timetable for achieving their ambition of reducing annual net migration to the tens of thousands.
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he told bbc radio 4 the number of people moving to the uk would vary over time, depending on employment prospects. the commitment was announced by the party in their manifesto on thursday. wikileaks founderjulian assange remains in the ecuardorian embassy in london this morning, despite sweden dropping a rape investigation against him without charge. mr assange is trying to avoid extradition to the us where he's wanted over the leaking of military and diplomatic documents. scotland yard also says he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy, for failing to attend court in 2012. home ownership among younger families has fallen by nearly two—thirds in some parts of the uk since 1994, according to new research. the resolution foundation, a think tank focussing on living standards, says outer london, the north—west and parts of yorkshire were most affected. prince george and princess charlotte will act as page boy and bridesmaid when their
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aunt pippa middleton marries james matthews today. the event is being dubbed "the society wedding of the year". there's been speculation over whether prince harry will bring his girlfriend, the american actress meghan markle. 0ver over to the sport. good morning. a lot of focus this weekend on the great arsene wenger, who has transformed english football over the past generation. being a little bit quick —— cryptic in his press conference. this could be his last game at home. arsenal could miss out on a place in the champions league at his position could depend on what happens in the boardroom as there is a bit of a power struggle going on. the russian shareholder alisher usmanov who owns a 30% stake in arsenal has made his move, a bid of around £1 billion, to buy out stan kroenke's majority share. but it's understood this bid has been rejected, as usmanov been critical of kroenke's support of arsene wenger.
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the arsenal manager is still keeping everyone guessing about his future. his contract expires after the fa cup final next weekend, when the board are expected to discuss his position. arsenal's final league match is at home against everton tomorrow, so could that be his last match at the emirates? of the season, yes. reporter: ever? i can't tell you that. i think what's most important for us is to win a football game. after that, what happens to me is less important. i think i am here to serve the club and the best way to do it is to win the next game. so watch this space. a year after they were relegated from the scottish premiership, dundee united will have the chance to bounce back at the first attempt. they won their championship promotion playoff against falkirk 4—3 on aggregate. paul dixon was their hero, scoring the winner with three minutes to go, his first goalforfive years. they'll play off for promotion against the side that finishes next to bottom of the premiership.
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talking of play offs, bradford and millwall meet in the league one final at wembley later today. there is full commentary on radio 5live. you've heard this before, an england team has gone out of a tournament on penalties. this time it was the under 17s at the european championship. in fact, they were just seconds away from a record third title when spain equalised in stoppage time. so it went to penalties. england missed two of their three penalties and spain didn't miss any, so they took the trophy from the young lions‘ grasp. in rugby union, scarlets are into the final of the pro 12, despite having to play more than half of their semi—final withjust 14 men. scarlets scored three tries to leinster‘s one in the first half but then had steffan evans sent off. they still held out though to set up a match against 0spreys or munster. they play their semi final later. meanwhile, cardiff blues won'tjoin scarlets in european rugby's elite club competition next season. they lost their champions cup qualification playoff semi final to stade francais.
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so the french side will play either connort or northampton for a spot in the competition. it's that time of year — playoff time in the english premiership too. a week after retaining the champions cup, saracens face exeter hoping to move a step closer to the double double, while league leaders wasps host leicester tigers. they've got the home advantage and that's huge in the semi—final of knockout rugby. so they were the best across the 22 rounds and they deserve that privilege. we'll have to go and make sure we're accurate early in the game and we keep the creators as quiet as we can and we do the things that keep us good as a team. if leicester come out with a fantastic performance and are better than us on the day, you have to put your hand up sometimes. but we believe if we play to our potential and play like we have most of the season, the result should be ours. but anything can happen on the day. we've worked hard to play top of the table and to get a home draw, so we're determined to go and put
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in a performance that we believe will be good enough to get the result. newcastle's st james' park has seen its goal posts replaced by rugby ones, because it's rugby league's magic weekend. this is when all the super league teams play over the same weekend, so today widnes face wakefield, hull in second play st helens and it's wigan against warrington. rafael nadal has been beaten on clay and knocked out of the rome masters. austria's dominic thiem was the first this year to beat the spaniard on his favourite surface. nadal had won 17 straight matches and had been going for an eight title in the italian capital. thiem will play either novak djokovic orjuan martin del potro in the semi—finals after their match was delayed by rain. maria sharapova won't ask for a wildcard to play at wimbledon and will attempt to earn her place via qualifying.
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the former champion has relied on invitations to tournaments since she returned to competition last month, after a 15 month doping ban. the french open turned her down for a wildcard this week, but her world ranking is now high enough to get into the wimbledon qualifying draw at least. iam sure i am sure there will be big crowd is going to the qualifier. she is still a big draw. that's the problem for the smaller tournaments. i wouldn't bet against her reaching wimbledon through qualifying. thanks very much. if you are one of the 13 million people in the uk who struggle with hayfever, there could be some good news. for the first time, a series of maps have been developed by the university of exeter that could help forecast where certain pollens are at their highest. let's have a look at how it works. the ash tree, for example, with its towering branches, is the third most common tree in britain,
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and here on the map, the darkest areas show where it's most prevalent and so where the levels of pollen will be high. down on the south coast and also across wales and the north—west. grass, the perennial of british woodlands and gardens, can also be problematic for hayfever sufferers. you can see here in the dark green areas where grass cover is dense and so pollen levels will be raised. in wales, the north—west and western scotland finally, the willow is often found growing alongside rivers, lakes and watercourses and its most common on the western coast of the uk, from the south—west corner into wales and the north—west. that is covering the area where we are! it doesn't look great here. joining us now, aisha shafiq, who is an asthma and hay fever sufferer and amena warner is head of clinical services for allergy uk. it is that time of year when people start to suffer. it is grass pollen
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season. usually by the end of april until the beginning of august it is grass pollen, so our patient charity, the helplines go crazy at this time of year with people phoning him, wanting to know information about there. you are an expert and sufferer. you have hayfever yourself. that's right. i have suffered from hayfever most of my life. the notion of having a map, in practical terms, you do live where you live. there is a limit to what you can avoid. how can this be helpful? it could be helpful if, just one addition in a toolkit of things we can do to help people. it might be that this is used by sega met office to actually predict forecast pollen levels in different areas, but people have to know what they are allergic to and all of that comes from the clinical history of when their symptoms are at what time
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of year. so the early blooming trees, they might get symptoms at the beginning of the year from trees, they might get symptoms at the beginning of the yearfrom march onwards, or february, depending on weather patterns and then grass pollen season, i've just mentioned, and then wheat pollen season from aboutjune orjuly until the end of august and september. some people don't like taking antihistamines. what are the alternatives? there are many alternatives. antihistamines are the mainstays. it is important to have long—acting antihistamines. at pollen is virtually in —— indestructible. as a lion solution can help get it out of the nasal passage. “— can help get it out of the nasal passage. —— say —— saltwater solution. nasal sprays, passage. —— say —— saltwater solution. nasalsprays, if you've got a blocked nose, that's important. some people only have
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very mild symptoms. some people have such severe symptoms that he really affects their daily life. as a nurse by background, i've worked in a big clinic where we saw lots of people with allergies and these people sometimes couldn't even go to the park with their children, it had such an impact. i remember one lady saying that she dreaded the pollen season because she spent most of her time with her head under the bed cove rs time with her head under the bed covers because she was so frightened. for those type of people, who have taken all of the traditional anti allergy medication are both over—the—counter or from theirgp, we are both over—the—counter or from their gp, we have got something that we can do in hospitals, in specialist allergy services, called immunothera py. that's word specialist allergy services, called immunotherapy. that's word used interchangeably with desensitisation, to lose their sensitivity to that pollen you are allergic to. we have specialised tests to find out exactly what it is that a person is allergic to.”
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tests to find out exactly what it is that a person is allergic to. i was going to ask that question. i don't suffer from hay fever. going to ask that question. i don't sufferfrom hay fever. you going to ask that question. i don't suffer from hay fever. you suffer a little bit. in the map they detailed number of things that can trigger. we talked about grasslands, certain trees. do people... are the triggers for different people different? some people find grass is what triggers them, others might not be bothered bya them, others might not be bothered by a think we mentioned the willow tree, amongst other things. is it that specific, that you can target what will affect you most? yes, and it is so specific, the actual blood testis it is so specific, the actual blood test is called a specific ige, because it is all about the immune system and the immune response, which drives allergy. so that's what the blood test is called, the specific ige to grass pollen, or whatever. we often do tree mixes and find out if they are allergic to that and if we ever want to do immunology we look specifically at
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which tree. very interesting. so many people will be affected by it. how is yours right now? i've used a nasal allergen barrier, so at the beginning of the year that's all i will need. at coming up to the height of the pollen season then i will need my antihistamines and my nasal saline, my add—on therapies. so it is what the clinicians have deemed a step up tight therapy. but if anyone has any tightness of chest in the pollen season, i would go to the gp and ask for a specialist allergy opinion, because that's really important that their asthma is controlled. thanks very much. all good advice. 0ur our main stories: as president trump embarks on his first foreign trip since taking office, he faces more controversy since taking office, he faces more c0 ntrove rsy over since taking office, he faces more
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controversy over the sacking of fbi directorjames comey. if you are one of the 13 million people in the uk who struggle with hay fever there could be some good news. for the first time a series of maps have been developed by the university of exeter that could help forecast where certain pollens are at their highest. and the weather. this is an advertisement. we tweak this on our twitter feed on bbc weather to advertisement. we tweak this on our twitterfeed on bbc weather to keep you up—to—date. we all support in the uv levels as well. they are a high this weekend, especially on sunday. get across the twitter feed. it is glorious, notjust with the favoured few, this is what we see quite widely. showers have arrived
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already in cornwall. worse than that. always someone worse off than you. all across scotland, leaden skies. rain in central and northern parts quite widely. miserable. showers working their way through northern ireland. you can see them at tall point and widely across the west. showers are going east. if your day has started off gloriously, it may not stay that way. it probably will not. one or two showers ahead of that rain band to the east of england and down into the east of england and down into the south—east of england as well. what changes? showers to the west go further east. with the heat of the afternoon it will be mighty for some. punchy showers in the midlands and into southern scotland. ——
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muggy. no escaping the north and north—east. they are stuck with the miserable fare. leaden skies for many of the fixtures in the scottish premiership today. an improving picture from the south—west. many of the showers tending to fade through the showers tending to fade through the evening and overnight. some chilly skies around. a glorious day. the uv is a bit higher we have a new set of weather fronts. if you have plans with lots of shows and weddings, it is quite a big day. and it is quite big in the premier league. it is time for news watch. welcome
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to newswatch. coming up, the party ma nifestoes to newswatch. coming up, the party manifestoes are out. how well has the bbc done on explaining their policies impartially? and are we hearing opinions from not always well—informed voters. with the main parties publishing offers to voters, this week has seen the general election campaign in full swing is. laura kuenssberg was on hand with her analysis. this is her on thursday reporting on the conservatives proposals. remember, not so long ago, in 2015, ed miliband made a few little tiptoes to the left of where labour had been, and he lost that election. jeremy corbyn is making a much bigger step in the same direction. it isa bigger step in the same direction. it is a gamble as to whether the
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vote rs of it is a gamble as to whether the voters of england are ready for this policies which will be popular. the complications of rigs it means whatever else she is promising could be derailed by that becoming extremely difficult and not just ha rd extremely difficult and not just hard to deliver but potentially nasty. —— brexit. as with any political idea as well. a mainstream leader for the mainstream. some viewers object to what they see as a running commentary on what politicians are saying and doing through the campaign. she said this. allegations of bias, as we have mentioned before in recent weeks,
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have been rife, with some viewers feeling the bbc has given the lion's share of screen time and prominent to the labour party. tom and jan borland profess themselves, "bemused and somewhat annoyed, to say the least, by the total airtime given over to the labour party, and to jeremy corbyn particular, who is the lead story every time you switch on the television news. this amount of press coverage is, to my mind, highly disproportionate, biased towards a single person and his party and not conducive to a level political playing field." for the majority of those contacting the bbc, though, the bias is in the other direction with rav dhillon speaking for many who feel, "there is a sneering and condescending tone the interviewing and reporting of labour policies. " elsewhere, the bbc‘s economics editor kamal ahmed also came under attack after his piece on labour's manifesto on tuesday's news at six. those earning above £80,000 will pay a tax rate of 45p in the pound. if you earn above that amount the loss will be around £400. for those earning £123,000
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the rate rises to 50p. that could leave some with a loss of up to £23,000. many viewers took to their calculators and then to social media to point out that those sums were wrong as the bbc later acknowledged, though not on—air, those earning £123,000 under labour's plans would actually pay an extra £2150 income tax, not 23,000. you'd have to earn £500,000 to be taxed that much more. so was that cock—up or conspiracy? philipjones told us, "i will assume this was a genuine error, albeit a gross one, and not a deliberate ploy to mislead potential voters into mistrusting the labour party." but louis mendee spoke for many when he posted, "this is a complete and utter outrage. it is wildly unacceptable for the bbc to
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be reporting falsehoods about the opposition's manifesto." later that night there were several examples of the bbc‘s efforts to get out and about during this election campaign and hear the views of so—called ordinary voters. here's deputy political editorjohn pienaar soliciting opinions in a gym in bradford. labour underjeremy corbyn, what do you think? well, i quite like his policies but i don't think they're doable. you don't think they're doable? what do you think? i agree, yeah, i don't think they're doable myself. why not? i just don't think they are. kenny watt was watching that and thought the views of the gentlemen exercising there, and more generally vox pops like that, did not add greatly to the sum of human knowledge. he's got a journalist coming in when he's in the middle of his work—out asking him questions when he's probablyjust thinking, "oh my god, when's this hill climb going to end?" and that's the problem with vox pops, because basically you're not getting a true representation of the population. this is how we get into the position of sound bites winning elections. stick to having trained journalists telling
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us about the facts in a story rather than the opinions of the ill informed. well, let's discuss some of those issues with the bbc‘s editor of political news katy searle who's in our westminster studio. katy, let's start with the allegations of bias, mostly claiming that the bbc has an anti—corbyn bias and it's quite a personal one. you've seen the examples that viewers have raised. what would you say? well, i wouldn't accept them. we have very strong and clear guidelines that we follow, editorial guidelines, and they're in line with the 0fcom code of conduct as well, which show that we have strict rules to abide to across the election period and to reflect all parties‘ positions and policies. and that's something we do absolutely and we take that very seriously. labour supporters are complaining that too much coverage is attacking the party. tory supporters are saying labour get more air time, so how is
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bbc news approaching that whole issue of balance and fairness? well, it is a challenge every day. what we have to do is take our editorial judgments and that's always going to have to guide our coverage. and that's why programme editors across the bbc and correspondents on air, as well as laura, the political editor, have long and careful discussions about what stories we're going to cover, what are the values in the news terms of those stories, and then how do they fit in line with the guidelines that i've just talked about? what's noticeable already in this election campaign is that perceived errors, and indeed some factual ones, amplified on social media when people try to build a campaign around them saying, look, the bbc‘s being unfair. how should the bbc deal with those examples? look, we're all human, we do make mistakes. look, you know, we're working to tight deadlines with lots of information coming in all the time and sometimes we do get it wrong.
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in those circumstances you just have to look and see where you can correct it as quickly as possible. and just on the detail i think it's worth adding that sometimes graphics actually can not be as clear. you are trying to sum up quite a lot of detail in one simple picture of numbers and figures. what we need to do is be very clear that our scripting goes around that and tells the full story. we have seen a particularly vocal campaign online against laura kuenssberg alleging anti—labour bias. what's the bbc‘s response? laura kuenssberg is a first—class political editor who has worked incredibly hard to get herjob right. laura does the daily analysis of all of the political parties and, of course, no personal views are reflected in any sense on any party, and that's true notjust of laura but across the bbc. so laura's doing herjob and she's doing that brilliantly. more broadly, though,
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viewers do complain that there's too much personal commentary from political correspondents who are kind of filling airtime and it is not fact—based, it's not objective. wouldn't the bbc be better, as at least one of our viewers has suggested, just sticking to factual reporting? well, i think analysis is really important actually, as part of our coverage. certainly in elections, and as we saw in the referendum last year, parties and campaigns have their own positions to push and they will do that and they will give us figures. and really, an important part of ourjob is to try and analyse and say to the viewer, well, on balance this is what it looks like to ask. that's why we have very experienced people from laura down across the bbc working on that and trying to give the audience something that means something and notjust slogans and numbers. we have to talk about vox pops because they come up every election and the charge is two things, one is if they are too gimmicky you're not going to get much of an answer if people
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are in the gym, or whatever. but also that they're not informed and are representative, and shouldn't the bbc be more careful about using them? yeah, vox pops are tricky actually because i have a bit of sympathy for that view. however, if we're doing a lot of politicians, and we are at the moment, and it's a very formalised way of presenting their views and opinions, i think vox pops gives us a bit of colour. it also does the most important thing which is to reflect the public‘s view. and in this campaign which goes on for several weeks we want to hearfrom our audience as well and try and, if you like, road—test some of the policies. vox pop is an unscientific way of doing that but it's the best way that we can do when we're dealing with tight news agenda and is. katy searle, thank you. thank you. away from the cut and thrust of the election but not entirely unconnected to it was the coverage of last friday's cyber—attack which use ransomware
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to lock files in 150 different countries demanding payment to allow access. some viewers were unhappy with the way the story was reported and one of them alex mcgill recorded this video to explain why. clearly the real story was that businesses large and small across the world had been attacked and damaged done. but from the initial reports one could easily have concluded that only the nhs was affected. this unbalanced reporting is particularly bad in the middle of an election campaign and can only heighten the perception of editorial bias within the bbc. finally, the moors murderer ian brady died on tuesday. the 79—year—old had tortured and killed five children in the 19605 with his partner myra hindley and buried them on saddleworth moor. some viewers objected to the prominence given to the news. here's one of them, sonia hales. why was it necessary for it to be
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in the number one spot, to have so much time given to this story, for the bbc to then try and find people that they could interview on this story? by doing this all they were actually doing was causing yet more distress to the families of these children, who have to live with this day in day out for the rest of their lives. this could have been dealt with with a simple one—liner at the end of the news report. thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions on bbc news and current affairs, or even appear on the programme, you can call us on 0370 010 6676, or e—mail newswatch@bbc. co. uk. you can find us on twitter @newswatchbbc, and do have a look at our website. the address of that is bbc.co.uk/newswatch. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc coverage again next week. goodbye. hello this is breakfast, with charlie stayt and sally nugent. in the last few minutes, president trump has arrived in saudi arabia on his first foreign trip since taking office — amid growing controversy
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back in washington. his plane has just touched his plane hasjust touched down in riyadh. as he left there were reports in the us that he had described the fbi director he'd just sacked as a "nutjob" to russian officials. good morning it's saturday, the 20th of may. tighter restrictions on tobacco come into force this morning with plain packaging and smaller packets no longer on sale. the world's media gathers ahead of pippa middleton's wedding in berkshire today. in sport, a power struggle at arsenal.
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